众所周知，焦点在促进语言处理方面起着重要作用，即焦点词的识别速度更快，记忆力更好，从20世纪70年代起就得到大量的心理语言学证据的支持，并且在很多语言中都有体现。但是，焦点对其语义对比项的影响近年来才逐渐受到关注。目前，心理语言学的证据仅来自少数密切相关的日耳曼语（即英语、荷兰语和德语），并且大部分研究针对焦点的韵律标记（即重音），尚不清楚其他类型的焦点标记（例如分裂句）是否具有类似的处理优势。因此，本书重点关注韵律和句法在汉语言语加工中的互动机制，主要考察韵律线索、句法线索在焦点信息及焦点对比项的编码、激活中的作用与联系，全面探究两种标记方式在焦点感知中的相对重要性及其与言语加工间的关系。

闫梦珠，女，博士，硕士生导师，现任教于华中科技大学外国语学院。主要研究领域为成人与儿童的一语和二语习得、言语产出与感知等。主持国家社科青年项目1项，参与jiaoyu部人文社科项目，以及省级、校级教学研究项目多项。在Language and Speech、Laboratory Phonology等期刊发表论文10余篇。

Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 What Is This Book About
1.2 The Organization of This Book
Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Focus and Focus Marking
2.1.1 Information Structure and Focus
2.1.2 Focus Marking
2.2 The Effects of Prosody and Syntax on Focus Perception
2.2.1 The Effects of Prosody on Focus Perception
2.2.2 The Effects of Syntax(Interacting with Prosody)on
Focus Perception
2.3 The Effects of Focus on Language Processing
2.3.1 Focus as Updating the Common Ground
2.3.2 Focus as Indicating Contextual Alternatives
2.4 Summary and Key Open Questions in the Literature
Chapter 3 Research Questions and Analysis Methods
3.1 Research Questions
3.2 Overview of the Experiments
3.3 Statistical Analyses
3.3.1 Statistical Models
3.3.2 Model Predictors and Selection Procedures
Chapter 4 Context and Lexical Relatedness J udgement
4.1 Background
4.2 Research Question
4.3 Method
4.3.1 Participants
4.3.2 Materials and Design
4.3.3 Procedure
4.4 Results
4.4.1 Data Cleaning and Analysis
4.4.2 The Role of Context in Association Strength
4.4.3 Item Selection
4.5 Discussion
Chapter 5 Focus and the Encoding of Discourse
lnformation
5.1 Background：Focus Marking and Focus Perception
5.2 Background：Focus and Encoding of Discourse
Information
5.3 Research Questions
5.4 Method
5.4.1 Participants
5.4.2 Materials and Design
5.4.3 Procedure
5.5 Results
5.5.1 Data Cleaning and Analysis
5.5.2 Accuracy
5.5.3 Reaction Times
5.6 Discussion
Chapter 6 Focus and Lexical Activation
6.1 Background
6.2 Cross-modal Lexical Decision Task
6.2.1 Research Questions
6.2.2 Method
6.2.3 Results
6.2.4 Discussion
Chapter 7 General Discussion and Conclusion
7.1 Summary of the Findings
7.2 General Discussion
7.2.1 The Role of Prosodic Focus in Speech Processing
7.2.2 The Role of Syntactic Focus in Speech Processing
7.2.3 The Role of Focus in Speech Processing
7.2.4 Cross—language Similarities and Differences
7.3 Conclusion
Appendices
Appendix 1 Participant Information Questionnaire (Mandarin Version)
Appendix 2 Participant Information Questionnaire (English Translation)
Appendix 3 Full Stimulus List (The Cross modal Lexical Decision Task)
Appendix 4 Instructions for the Relatedness Rating Task
Appendix 5 Summary of Models
Appendix 6 Full Stimulus List(The Speeded“False Alternative”Rejection Task。
Appendix 7 Instructions for the Speeded“False Alternative”Rejection Task
Appendix 8 Instructions for the Cross-modal Lexical Decision Task
References